Noel Gallagher returns today with a new song called “Pretty Boy,” the lead single from his untitled forthcoming album with his High Flying Birds. It features ex-Smiths member Johnny Marr on guitar.
As Oasis’ former chief songwriter, Gallagher is already known for writing massive earworm melodies, and there’s no shortage of those on “Pretty Boy.” With Marr’s immediately-recognizable guitar jangle backing him, Gallagher seems to wrestle with his own identity and sense of self: “Can you delete my number?/ I wanna get me free/ I wanna change my star sign/ Because it don’t suit me,” he sings in the final verse.
“For this new record it was the first thing I wrote, the first thing I demoed and the first thing I finished, so it’s only right that it’s the first thing people get to hear,” Gallagher wrote in a statement. “Massive shout out to my mainest man Johnny Marr for taking it somewhere special. Oh… and watch out for a cameo from me in the video… first one to spot me wins a bag of Flamin’ Hot Wotsits Giants!!”
The “Pretty Boy” video centers around a crew of drag queens as they put on their faces and wigs for the evening; try to spot Gallagher in it below.
Gallagher hasn’t yet shared a release date or other details for his High Flying Birds’ follow-up to 2017’s Who Built the Moon?, but we can expect to hear it next year. Last year, the band did share a greatest hits collection called Back the Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021).